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Re: examining of one sentence only

Hi Barb-D,

Here is an excerpt from the Phraseological dictionary Russian literary language.

Honest income. Obsolete. Irony. Any decision taken by officials bribes. Dreams of a reasonable activity fell asleep under the vice-uniform, official, refuses to honest income (Pisarev. stagnant water).

I assumed that there a mistake has slipped in here, namely a logical gross blunder. In my humble opinion, the corrupt white-collar workers never refuse to take given bribes. On the contrary, they accepts bribes willingly. This was the cause to make a modification of the original sentence.

Re: examining of one sentence only

Thank you for your kindness. As you see I had good reason to make clear my position.

fall asleep = go to sleep; also, cease paying attention as in: His lectures are so dull that I fall asleep.

asleep at the wheel = inattentive, not doing one's job

Here are a few words concerning my speculation of the ambiguous for you expressions:

Dreams fell asleep? the official in question don’t do his job, he think for money only
A vice uniform? a full-dress of a great officer (official) of state
Whose dreams? official’s dream
What reasonable activity? normal (ordinary) activity of a scrupulous, honorable official

Honest income. Obsolete. Irony. Any decision taken by officials bribes. Dreams of a reasonable activity fell asleep under the vice-uniform, official, refuses to honest income (Pisarev. stagnant water).

In my humble opinion, the only inadequacy in the quoted sentences are the expressions in bold.

Re: examining of one sentence only

*** NOT A TEACHER ***
Here is the original sentence in Russian:
Мечты о взаимной любви сменились нелепою женитьбою; мечты о разумной деятельности уснули под вицмундиром чиновника, не отказывающегося от безгрешных доходов.
I translated it like this:
His dreams of mutual love were replaced by an absurd marriage; his aspiration for reasonable activity subsided being covered by his uniform of the official who wouldn’t refuse being on an unsinful income.
be on unsinful income = take bribes (well, if it is acceptable)
Quite a complicated sentence to translate from Russian! I hope I got the sense across.
Anyway, in simple words, the sentence describes a guy who became a civil servant, an offical (and a Russian official is a kind of special). When he was younger, he dreamed of mutual love, hard working (which is the “reasonable activity” aimed to serve his homeland), but as soon as he got in office, he became a classic Russian official (or “chinovnik” as we call them) who lived by “unsinful income” that is by bribes.